Game 10 of 82: Utah Jazz at New York Knicks (4-6)

Quin Snyder on how he handles player shooting slumps like the one Trey Burke has been in:

You know, I think you, it depends on the situation or the player. I think early on, we just ignored it. You know, you think, I don’t think Trey’s the kinda guy that is gonna suffer confidence-wise, but you’re paying attention a little bit to, you know, what is, what are the external factors that we’re noticing, where you’re not ignoring it entirely.

You’re just, sometimes those things, players figure ’em out, and you know, you intervene too quickly and you actually don’t help the problem. I think some of it, for him, is he started to, he missed a few, had a few tough shooting nights, and then started to press a little bit. Maybe took some shots that were not as good shots, which obviously, you know, taking contested shots, they’re harder to make.

So, we did, we sat down and watched some film of him in the preseason. You know, just a little bit ago, he was, you know, gosh, he shot it about 50 percent or something from three. It was terrific.

And then the other thing you wanna talk to him about is, you know, there’s lots of ways to impact the game, and last night, you know, he still didn’t shoot it great from three, but I thought had a much more solid game and distributed the ball.

And sometimes, when you take, you know, in your own mind, you take the pressure off making every shot and do some other things, defend and you know, and lead and things like that, pretty soon you’re making shots too. So that’s, you’ve gotta come at it from a few angles.

Post-Game Quotage**Quin Snyder on the last shot
We just thought, you know, Gordon [Hayward]’s been tough to guard, and he would draw some attention. And Trey [Burke] was able to slip out after screening for Derrick [Favors]. And I think Gordon was the focal point. You know, Trey’s the guy that’s, you know, been known for hitting big shots, and I think he was, he’s one of those guys that gets excited when he gets the ball. And you know, Gordon’s been like that too.**Snyder on why Enes Kanter played limited minutes
With Carmelo [Anthony] kind of alternating between the “three” and “four,” you know, and then they went with the sh–you know, more of a shooting lineup with [Travis] Wear for a good chunk of the game, where Trevor [Booker] was playing good, and we went small with Gordon ’cause he was defending Carmelo so well. And you know, I thought it was a game for Steve [Novak]. You know, Steve, we’ve talked about the, you know, there’s gonna be a stretch of games where he doesn’t play, and then there’s gonna be [situations] or games where suddenly, you know, it’s a good fit. And tonight was one of those moments, and I thought he did a really good job.**Derek Fisher on his message to his team after this loss
Excitement. Belief. In who we are, in what we’re made of. That was New York City right there. That was New York City…That’s a team right there. And we’re gonna get rewarded for what just happened tonight.

**Trey Burke on the last shot
You always think about the next play. You know, so when you, when the Knicks had the ball, you know, you have to, you know, obviously you want your team to get a stop but you have to think, you know, worst case scenario. He hits a three, now what? You have to start thinking ahead, and I think that’s what I did…So I was already prepared for that shot, you know, if I had the opportunity…You could probably take two dribbles, with two seconds [left]…Once I caught the ball, my back was turnt towards the ba–or it was turnt away from the basket, and I was, like, facing the crowd. So, I had to turn around and you know, create separation, and you know, I stepped back and knocked the shot down.**Gordon Hayward, asked what was the difference down the stretch compared to the last two games
You know, I wanna say it was getting stops, but we couldn’t seem to get a stop. I think tonight, huge free throws. Derrick Favors steps up and knocks down two free throws. So that kinda kept us in it. And I think it was just competing, and it would’ve been unfortunate if we lost this one too, because the other two felt like we should’ve won both of them.**Hayward on defending Anthony
We tried to put numerous guys on him, and he still was able to have his way a little bit…You have to just try to do everything you can to battle him, and that’s what I tried to do, and it still didn’t necessarily work. You know, he still put up 46 or whatever.

Random Stuff, etc.** People calling Steve Brown “Boler”: Matt Harpring** Steve Brown with the Unquote of the Night: “[Pablo] Prigioni looks like someone just told him he wasn’t Italian, or Argentinian, or whatever.”** Methinks someone is obsessed with his new hair (with the exception of the first one, all of these are from the second half):

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night (UDQM)**Steve Brown on not understanding what Matt Harpring is talking about: Three minutes in…you’re over my head. That’s for sure.Harpring: You have length, and non-length.Brown: And that too. Hehehe. Been over my head for a long time.Harpring: Watch the size.Brown: That’s true. That’s true. It’s getting brutal here.**Harpring: We know that Carmelo Anthony doesn’t like it when you get into him. We know this.Brown: And how do we know this?Harpring: Well, I know this.**Harpring on Alec Burks: Carmelo just goes backdoor on him. Makes it look easy.Brown: He has the strength to get up and finish.**Brown on Cole Aldridge: Aldridge could not go up. How ’bout on the other end, and, oh, going down hard. Oh my. That’s, that did not look good. Booker came down very hard.Harpring: It’s good that he’s popping up right away.**Brown on Trevor Booker: Booker got stripped, but he ran the floor.**Brown: Joe Ingles is gonna be taking the warmups off, and he’ll go in.**Brown: A tight one in the Garden.**Harpring on free throws: The first one’s always the hardest. You get that one to go down, second one becomes a little easier.**Brown to Gordon Hayward, post-game: Carmelo Anthony, you guys were banging all night long. That takes a lot out of you.

I’m thinking Q’s clenched fist when Trey made the shot was more about that it was Trey even than actually winning the game. It’s about the medium-term cohesiveness of the team and they rely on Trey for that–he needs Trey to be in a good place.